Born Again in Brazil: The Pentecostal Boom and the Pathogens of Poverty

In this seminal text on Pentecostalism in Brazil, Andrew Chesnut explores the causes of the remarkable expansion of this faith among the Brazilian poor. In addition to exploring the roles of economic and political conditions, he puts particular emphasis on the role of faith healing, arguing that Brazil's most marginalized populations are drawn to churches that promise to deliver them from various forms of illness. The empirical argument is based largely on ethnographic research in the city of Belem, and the book focuses on three congregations, including the largest Protestant community in Latin America, the Assembly of God.